Vida, Calaveras, y Sueños
by The Writer Triumphant
Summary: Dia de los Muertos. The day to honor the dead. This year Kagome will learn more about the dead than she ever wanted to.


**Vida, Calaveras, y Sueños

* * *

**

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. No legal claims have I. Beware the fanfic writer... they always twist and poke... Dance, puppets, dance!

**For **My big bro, my southern brother from another mother, **Mister Saint**.

**Challenged: **To write an Inuyasha fic set in Mexico.

**Opening Notes:** When I have an idea for a fic, I usually start writing it in my head first. The idea for this one came almost immediately to me, and ironically, I began to write it in my head in Spanish. While I typed it was also difficult to keep from switching.

The title translates to "Life, Skulls, and Dreams".

Don't ask me why they still have Japanese names when this is set in Mexico. (the only names I "translated" were Kagome's mom – Mami – and her grandpa – Abuelo.)

* * *

**Kagome** woke up to the sound of the church bell ringing. She pulled the blankets around her and looked out at the November sky. Today was a special day. Dia de los Muertos. The day to celebrate death, honor your family that has passed away.

Sota, her younger brother, knocked on her door and told her to wake up.

"We have to go to the market!"

She got dressed quickly and joined her family in the kitchen. Breakfast was simple, chilaquiles and frijoles. Sota wolfed it all down in his eagerness.

"I want a sugar skull!" he declared.

"We need candles, too," Mami added.

Tonight they would go to the graveyard and decorate Papi's headstone with flowers and candles. Mami was making a special dinner for them to take and eat there.

La Piedad was bustling with excitement for the holiday, merchants selling colorful sugar skulls, candles and armfuls of flowers. Sota ran ahead of her to buy the sugar skulls and the pan muerto while she searched for the candles and flowers. She ran into Hojo, a classmate of hers, and together they picked out miniature skeleton figures. Hers was dressed as a nun and his as a doctor.

"I'll see you and your family tonight, right?"

"Of course."

They parted and Kagome found Sota, arms laden with sweets, bread, and ribbon to decorate the tomb. A demon mask dangled from his fingers, red with bright gold eyes. Kagome and her mother would walk in the candle procession, and Sota would run and dance with the other children in their bright costumes.

When they returned home, the house smelled of posole, Papi's favorite food. Fresh pico de gallo was already prepared, and Mami was busy pressing tortillas de maiz. Abuelo was absent, having left earlier to clean the gravesite.

Kagome went and changed into different clothes and helped her mother finish cooking while Sota went out to play, donning an old poncho and his red demon mask.

"Do you miss Papi?" Kagome asked as they flipped the tortillas on the comal.

"Very much. But I see so much of him in you and your brother," Mami replied, smiling sadly.

They turned on the radio and found a station that Papi had listened to. His favorite song came on, and it was very hard not to cry, but they managed. After all, this was supposed to be a happy day. Papi had always said that death was just another great adventure. He hadn't been afraid of death, because he believed in destiny. Death, he said, is the destiny we all share.

* * *

It was evening now, and their dinner was packed in a basket. Kagome and Mami found their rebozos – a dark green one for Kagome and a dark blue one for Mami – before going out to join the candlelit procession to the graveyard.

The air was thick with the smell of flowers and food. On nearly every corner crowds gathered to watch, fascinated, as structures of wood and colorful paper were set on fire. Children ran wild in costumes, and every now and then they stopped to comfort a crying widow.

Hundreds of people surrounded them on all sides as they marched to the graveyard, their faces lit by candles. No one was afraid to step onto the holy ground that night, and as they passed the gates, instruments sang and voices joined in as the people began decorating the tombs.

Abuelo was already there, and he and Sota immediately began to drape colorful ribbons over Papi's grave. Kagome set the flowers around and helped Mami light more candles.

Orange petals littered the ground, a trail for the spirits of the dead to follow.

From some short distance away, Hojo called to her, and with Mami's permission she went over, bearing a plate of pan dulce for him and his family. She stayed for a little while, and then returned, bringing back a gift of buñelos. Sota was listening attentively to a story Abuelo was telling about when Papi was a little boy.

"Kagome, I forgot the tomatillo. Would you run home and get it?" Mami asked.

Kagome stiffened. Home wasn't too far away, but suddenly she was afraid to go alone, and in the dark.

"Si, Mami," she said finally, wrapping her rebozo tightly around her and heading off.

* * *

The tomatillo was there on the table, and she snatched it quickly and ran back, trying not to get distracted by the crowds.

"Hey!"

Kagome stumbled backward and fell to the ground.

"You should watch where you're going." It was gentle and kind, not at all harsh like the statement usually was.

She looked up, pulling herself to her feet. "Lo siento..." she said, meeting the eye of the old woman who she'd bumped into.

A strangled gasp escaped the old woman's mouth and she stepped back, rapidly performing the sigh of the cross on herself and gaping at Kagome as though she'd seen a ghost.

"Santo Dios..."

She was shorter than Kagome, silver gray hair pulled back and settled in a bun at the base of her neck. She more a simple cream colored cotton dress and a deep red rebozo. The only remarkable thing about her, really, was the eyepatch that covered one eye.

"I'm sorry," Kagome repeated carefully. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"Santo Dios," the old woman said again, regaining her composure. "What is your name?"

"Kagome." She mentally reprimanded herself for answering so simply and so quickly. But surely this woman meant her no harm.

"Kagome," the old woman smiled gently. "Would you walk with me? These old bones aren't much good, and I'd like to get to my sister's grave in one piece.

Kagome felt the heat rush to her face.

"Of course!"

She let the old woman take her arm, and they walked slowly to the graveyard, Kagome hoping Mami would forgive her for being late. But really, it would be rude not to help this Señora, especially after bumping into her like that. Her name was Kaede, and she was going to visit her sister Kikyo's grave. The reason Kagome had startled her so, she explained, as because Kagome looked so much like Kikyo.

They walked to a quieter part of the graveyard, stopping at a lonely – but elaborate – headstone. An angel with a bow and arrow adorned it, but it was very old and crumbling. Kaede sank to her knees at the site and arranged some flowers and a candle there. Kagome felt bad about leaving the woman alone, so she sank to her knees as well, and listened while Kaede spoke to Kikyo, then prayed with her.

"Thank you, Kagome," Kaede said at last, and Kagome helped her to her feet. "Now I must go visit with a friend of mine at her son's grave."

She headed off, pulling her deep red rebozo around her.

Kagome sighed and looked back to the headstone. Kikyo had died young, according to Kaede, and she had been a beautiful young woman who was loved by many people. But now only Kaede was left to mourn her. To honor her.

Feeling suddenly very melancholy, she perched herself at the edge of an old well beside the grave, forgetting about the tomatillos. She rocked back and forth gently, thinking about the young woman who looked so much like her and whose life had ended so quickly.

So caught up in these musings was she that she didn't realize how the wood was creaking as she swayed, and it broke quite suddenly with a crack, tearing away from the frame of the well. Kagome fell backward, a scream escaping her throat as she tumbled down into the cold, spider webs snagging at her. She hit cold stone, and immediately everything went black.

* * *

When she opened her eyes, the sky above was red. She hurt all over, but reached up, her hand touching the earth-brushed stone of the well. She pulled herself to her feet and was surprised to find that she could see over the edge. Had she really only fallen six feet down? It had felt like so much more.

She leaned against the wall until she was sure she was strong enough to pull herself out, then reached up and grasped the edge, kicking at the wall and climbing up until she was out.

"Where...?"

Kagome pinched herself hard and blinked. She wasn't in the graveyard. She wasn't even in La Piedad. The city was gone. Only the well was there, and some trees that reached up to tear at the red sky. Hills and mountains rolled here and there, and between two mountains she could see a city, could see the lights.

But... what was this place.

"I'm dreaming."

"You're dead."

Kagome turned around quickly, startled at the sound. A little boy stood there, leaning against a tree. Kagome stepped closer to get a better look at him. He had bright eyes and a feral grin, and he was dressed in tattered clothing, a huge bushy foxtail tied to the back of his pants, the kind used to keep fleas off one's person.

But the strange thing about him, even as his words sunk in, was his skin. It was pale and dirty. Kagome held back a scream when she saw that it had been torn away from his arm, and there was no blood, only rotted bone poking out.

"Dead?"

The boy smiled.

"Yes. Like me, and like every other damned soul in this place."

"But..."

"You fell through the well?" the boy asked, then let loose a bark of laughter. "Weird place to put a portal to the Spirit World." He stepped forward and extended a hand. Here, too, flesh rotted at the knuckles and the fleshy web between his thumb and forefinger. Kagome took it gingerly and briefly.

"I'm Shippo," the boy said. "Come with me. Maybe Miroku can help you."

They walked down a dirt path for a long time, coming to a gate at the mountain.

"When we pass through here," Shippo warned, "You'll be among the dead. Try not to draw to much attention to yourself. And don't eat anything. You're still alive, so it would taste horrible to you." He grinned. "And if you eat anything, you won't be able to return to the living."

Kagome nodded, understanding.

They walked past the gate and down a long cobbled path for what seemed like hours until they reached the outskirts of the city.

Apparently, today was as much a day to celebrate here as it was among the living. The dead wandered the streets, singing and dancing, some of them wearing tails of different animals, all of them in varying states of decay. The smell was strong, and Kagome had to wrap her rebozo close to her face to keep from fainting from it.

Shippo lead them to a small house filled with light and color and shouts from every corner of the room. In the center of it all sat a young man who's skin was rotted considerably around his right eye. His hair was jet black and one of his hands was almost nothing but bone, the other bore a gaping hole in the palm.

"Miroku!" Shippo called, successfully pulling the man away from his guests.

"There you are, Shippo!"

"We need your help."

It was then that the man – dressed in priest's robes, Kagome noted – spotted her, and he stared for a full minute before stating the obvious.

"She's alive!"

"She fell though the well," Shippo explained.

"I see..." his eyes wandered up and down her, and Kagome felt the slightest bit uncomfortable.

"Can you help her?"

"I suppose I can use a holy seal to open the well again..."

"Thank you," Kagome said.

"... but they're hard to come by."

Kagome's face fell. "Where can I find a holy seal?"

Miroku looked equally uncomfortable. "I couldn't tell you. Holy seals are artifacts of pure properties, and they could be anything... anything ordinary that respond to prayer."

"Like?"

"It could be anything. A flower, a comb..." He shrugged. "My advice to you is to go to the old church in the forest and pray. Perhaps there you'll get a feeling... that will help you find it."

"I'll come with you," Shippo volunteered.

"We should find a demon killer to go with us as well," Miroku advised.

"Demon killer?" Kagome asked, her mind barely registering that the dead priest was volunteering to come along. Doubtless he was curious as to how a holy seal was found.

"The forest is full of demons," Miroku answered simply.

* * *

The demon killer they found was a pretty young woman. Pretty, but still as dead as Shippo and Miroku, her neck bruised and rotting, her ribs visible through the ripped flesh of her back. A strange sort of wolf creature followed her.

"She's a tamed demon," Sango – for that was her name – explained. She didn't seem to mind that Kagome was alive, something that the few other demon killers had picked up on and had been wary of.

As they walked into the forest, Kagome felt the strangest she'd ever felt in her life. Surely this was a dream. Her eyes fell on the rotted flesh pulling away from Miroku's hand and she shuddered.

The forest was dark and Kagome felt the air around tighten somehow. Not willing to wait to be at the church, she began to pray immediately, clasping her hands together and thinking about Mami, Abuelo, and Sota.

"Miroku!"

Sango leaped forward and threw her weapon – a boomerang the size of a chair fashioned from bone and lashed together with leather – in front of her, cutting through the dark flesh of the thing that had attacked, sending it writhing to the ground some distance away.

It looked more or less like a huge crow, but with four eyes instead of two, all of them glowing green, and claws big enough to wrap around Kagome's torso. Black feathers adorned its belly and crowned its head, but not its wings, which were awkwardly folded and brown, flapping like giant bat's wings.

Sango barely hesitated before drawing her short sword and stabbing it. Black blood spurted from it, and before dying, it spit up a bile of pale green that smelled worse than the dead.

They encountered another like it, and then something that was like a snake with a scorpion's tail before reaching the church.

It was old, all the windows broken save for the stained glass image of Saint Patrick and the stained glass of Mary, which was only missing a few pieces. The pews were knocked over, and the basin of holy water had run dry. Kagome's feet carried her up to the alter, and she fell to her knees, not allowing herself to cry and uttering the first prayer that came to mind.

_Ángel de mi guardia, dulce compañía... no me desampares… ni de noche, ni de día…_

She felt herself crying. Soon the tears were coming steadily, and the payers even faster. Gradually she felt herself calming down and began to feel something. And when she opened her eyes, she could see it in her mind. Something calling to her, pure and simple.

"Do you feel something?" Miroku asked.

"Yes..."

She stood up shakily, and left the church through the back, her companions following her.

"Wait!" Shippo pulled on her arm. "Don't!"

"What's wrong?" Miroku asked.

"That's where _he_ lives..." Shippo whispered, nodding to the mausoleum where Kagome had been set on leading them. The entrance was dark, and the whole structure sank into the ground behind it, like a huge animal waiting to pounce and swallow them whole.

"Something is telling me to go in there."

"But that's where... the dog demon bastard lives... guarding his father's corpse and his mother's grave."

"Don't be stupid, Shippo," Miroku hissed. "That isn't true. It's a stupid story to keep us out of that place."

"What's down there?" Kagome asked.

"Some think it's a portal to hell."

Kagome stepped forward.

"Something is telling me to go down there... and it doesn't feel evil at all. So I'm going..."

* * *

She was afraid, of course. More afraid than she'd ever been. And in the past hours she'd seen a lot that had frightened her. But she was remembering her Papi's words. Death is just another great adventure. And here she was.

She took another step forward, and another. The darkness swallowed her, and all she could do was keep walking toward the dim light ahead.

She nearly jumped when she felt something tug at her hand, but realized it was Shippo. Brave boy.

They walked until they reached the light, which turned out to be a torch set in the wall. Kagome pulled at it and it came free.

"At least we have light now," she said to Shippo, trying to comfort him.

"Sango said she'd guard the entrance from demons... and Miroku stayed with her."

Kagome nodded and bent down to place a kiss on his hair. "Thank you for coming with me, Shippo."

It seemed like hours, and the place was a series of mazes. Once or twice she was sure she saw a ghost, but it was always gone when she blinked or moved the torch to get a better look.

Finally, the clear pure image in her mind stilled, and they entered the biggest part of the place, a round room where many stone caskets rested.

"Kagome... are you sure about this?" Shippo asked in a nervous whisper.

But she didn't answer.

How strange.

She'd felt it before, so strong. But as soon as they stepped into this room it was gone.

"What are you doing here?"

* * *

Kagome barely had time to realize that the voice wasn't Shippo's, when the boy yelled and she turned around in time to see a figure dressed in black swoop down on her friend. He ducked in time and she saw his fox tail whip out of sight behind a stone block.

"Move!" the voice called again, and she ducked behind a casket, curling up into a fetal position and feeling a rush of cold wind. The torch flew out of her hands and went out.

When she dared look up again she was met by a pair of piercing gold eyes and a mane of wild white hair.

"You're alive," he said.

"I know."

"No, I mean, Death nearly got you."

Shippo peeked over the block of stone, eyes wide.

"He saved you, Kagome."

She stood, pulling her eyes away from her savior's long enough to look him over.

He looked as young as she was, and he wore a pair of torn black pants and a dark red shirt. He was as pale as the dead, but his flesh was only splattered with blood along his neck and all up the hand that didn't hold a rusty sword. A dog demon mask was pushed up from his face, and he wore a smaller tail at his hip, and around his neck was a necklace made of bits of crystal, a round intact jewel in the center.

As soon as she saw it she felt the pure clarity again.

"Some manners," the young man grunted.

Kagome glared at him, but then relaxed.

"Thank you."

"Who are you?" he asked.

"That's Kagome!" Shippo supplied, coming up and holding onto her arm. "She fell through the well and now we're trying to find a holy seal so that Miroku can open it up again."

The young man put his sword away. "I'll lead you out of here. You'll get lost," he offered gruffly.

"Thank you..."

"Inuyasha," he said tersely, giving his name.

He seemed to know his way around, and it didn't take half as long to find the way out.

"Don't come down here again," he warned them. "It's dangerous, and I won't save you twice."

"Wait," Kagome pleaded as he made to disappear again. "That necklace of yours..."

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed. "What of it?"

"I have..." she swallowed. "I think that it's the holy seal I need."

"Once an object is used for a holy seal, it disappears. This trinket is valuable to me, and I'm not willing to let it go," he replied coldly, making to leave again.

"But... then I can't go back."

"Not my problem."

"You're selfish!" she hissed.

"Me?" he turned to face her again. "I saved your life. I don't owe you anything. More like you owe me."

He was right, of course. "Is there something... Something I can do for you in exchange?"

"Take me with you."

She was surprised that he actually answered the question. More so than the answer itself.

"But... you're dead, aren't you?"

He gave a short bark of laughter, much like Shippo's. "I won't come back to life, if that's what you think. I just want to see someone. Come daybreak, I'll be back here."

Kagome thought for a long moment. "Deal."

* * *

Miroku held the necklace over the well and prayed silently. After a long moment he stepped back and declared it a success, opening his hand to show that the necklace was gone. Inuyasha visibly flinched, but jumped down into the well and held out his arms to help Kagome down. She embraced the other three briefly before allowing herself to be escorted down. Again she felt the pure feeling and everything went dark again. All she felt was Inuyasha's hand in her own.

When she opened her eyes and looked up, she saw the stars again. Inuyasha smiled and pulled himself out of the well, then reached down to help her.

"I need to go to my family..." she said.

He nodded silently, stepped forward and placed a fluid kiss on her cheek before turning away.

As she walked away she saw him sink down to his knees at Kikyo's grave.

* * *

**- The Writer**

**Translations:**

Mami: mother

Papi: father

Abuelo: grandfather

Rebozo: shawl

Lo siento: forgive me/ I'm sorry

Santo Dios: My God

Señora: lady

"_Ángel de mi guardia, dulce compañía... no me desampares… ni de noche, ni de día…_": "Sweet guardian angel, don't leave my side, be with me day and night"


End file.
